Huntsville gazette., 1887-12-24

y
tell vel The INST no pretty about 'em,
and there wasn't none to the time Of the
Wiley slide!"
The speaker was gaunt, tall old
man, with grnzled hair descending in
thick tangles below his coat-collar, and
an air of Robinson Crusoe abou: him
that appealed strongly to the imagina-
ton. l, for one, should not have been
surprised if he had claimed to be a col
lateral relative of the Great Stone Face
that looks over and beyond the Fran
coma hills with such awful and confident
expectation. He had something of that
lean and rigid aspect, and his eye was
no less expressive than that deep-set
hollow wherein the unseen orb of the
profile turks and almost CLEANS.
"You remember the Willeys, do youW
asked /, having received a hint that
the question was expected, and thinking
the time had come to ask it, as we were
standing now behind the little gray
house at whose back door the fearful
slide was stayed, though it overwhelmed,
few rods below, the inmates who fed
from this terror by night, too frightened
to know that it had not come nigh their
dwelling
The old man looked at me with his
dead gray eyes, and creaked:
''Well | guess SO. [ was one of them
that digged 'em out next day. You see
lived down to North Bartlett, twelve
mile below maybe, and / heered that
thunderln' noise in the nighttime with
out the least idee what twas. There
had been q considerable dry spell for
six weeks back We see, then there
came drizzlin' showers, rainin' and
stoppin', rainin' and stoppin', so IS it
soaked in good, and slid down the
cracks betwixt the rocks on Wiley
mounting and, the dirt an roots; fact is
the airth was dust dry and couldn't
soak, the rain run off into the cracks as
l tell We, then there came a rippin'
storm, ralned hull water all day long;
| was tearin' round from light to night
patchin' up the ruff, both to barn and
house, a stoppin' round the chimney,
and coverin' up the hog-pen, and settin'
things here an there for to catch the
water. filed all the tubs full ag'inst
wash day, and ketched hogshead
runnin' over besides; we'd been dread
IUly on It for water along back,
even the mounting springs was dried
to the bone as you may say.
"Well l was tuckered out, and l
slept like log, but l had to wake up
When that roar come, and tn old
woman She Civ yell and se's she,
Wake up Joab there s suthin' or
mother broke loose and | guess it's
judgment comini
"'Well, if It's ses I. Il dono as
we can help it, So | fetched around
and snoozed off / amt real scary. for
[ was fetched up in the woods. Come
mornin', thought see the river was ND
putty mighty, and, come to go I'D
ways along the road, the WANT much
road left, so | reckoned there'd been
some sort Of mixin' up above, but I
didn't know what till next day morn
in feller come to my door and ses, ses
he:
'Hain't seen none O. Willey's folks,
hev yea
"'Why, no., says I.
"'Wel, saws he, nor l guess you
won't till the Day O. Judgment
"'How you tall1!' says the old woman,
a comm out with her apern over her
head. Women folks likes to know
what's to DO
"'Why. what's ben goin' on?' sez
l. Then he set to, and told me how't
the mounting side, trees, and dirt, and
top rocks and all, had slid down right
into the roadway and the brook, and
how he was goin' down to Wiley for
to see about hirin' out for a lumberin'
job, and when he see what had fell
down into the valley, he mistrusted t
suthin' was wrong, so he worked his
way along through the trees, n stuns,
an dirt, till he come to the house. and
70 youl there twas, all safe, but not
hvin' cretur inside on It; the was
two taller candles tipped over onto the
Eoor, and chair lynn on its back, and
The door flung open, but not a sound.
lie said he hollered like all possessed,
and twas kind of dreadful to hear how |
stlll twas, nothin' but the choked up |
roarln' of the brook, not so much as a |